College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Communicative
Disorders and Sciences Newsletter
Fall 2014
Table of Contents
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
Greetings from the Newsletter Editor
1
Chair Letter
2
New Audiology Professor Joins Faculty
4
Dr. Susan Felsenfeld Joins Clinical Faculty
4
Virginia Majewski New Department Secretary
5
New Clinic Administrator
5
Gretchen’s Baby
5
Professor Salvi Receives Tinnitus Research Award
6
Sertoma Winner
6
NYSSLHA Award to Dr. Salvi
6
UB Alumna Receives NYSSLHA Award
7
SLP Student Wins SHAWNY Scholarship
7
Dr. Christina Stocking Invited to Copenhagen
8
White Coat Ceremony May 16, 2014
8
AAA Trivia Bowl
8
Cinotti Receives SHAWNY Award
9
Teddy Bear Clinic Participation
9
Workshop with Hearing Evaluation Services, Inc.
9
Amplification CEU Workshop
10
Cochlear Implant Presentation
10
Gretchen Bennett Presents at NYSSLHA Annual Convention
10
Laryngectomy Conference
11
GSA Sponsors Pasta Dinner
11
Student Academy of Audiology Annual Pasta Dinner
11
Student Academy of Audiology and UB Alumni Happy Hour
12
Beijing Summer Audiology Clinic Training Program June 2014
12
Au.D. Students Assist at Special Olympics New York Winter Games
13
Wellness Fair Volunteer
13
SLP Student Authors Article
13
Au.D. 2014 Student Research Day
13
Alumni in Washington, DC Area
14
Greetings from the
Newsletter Editor
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
1
This is our seventh annual department newsletter
Connections. Each year we have tried to feature
the wide variety of activities and achievements
of our department faculty, staff, alumni, and
current students. Look for several themes in our
newsletter: a welcome to new members of the
department, awards, professional and community
service, and a goodbye. Our department is
definitely a living organism that changes and
grows over time.
This will be my final newsletter to edit as I am
retiring in the next year. It has been a genuine
pleasure to volunteer on this project because
it highlights our department and reaches out
to you our alumni and colleagues. Each year I
am impressed by the energy and creativity that
emanate from our department. Our academic and
clinical faculty members are exceptionally busy
with innovative research, and our students are
involved, not only in their academic and clinical
studies, but also numerous volunteer programs.
Do people ever sleep here?
I hope that you enjoy reading this issue and
will keep in touch with our department, and me,
of course. If you can, please think of making
a donation to our department to fund special
student or faculty projects. Good luck to each of
you in your professional and professional lives.
You have made mine terrific.
Rosemary Lubinski, Ed.D., Professor
Newsletter Editor
cdsrosie@buffalo.edu
Chair Letter
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
2
Greetings from the Department of
Communicative Disorders and Sciences. The
2013-14 academic year was a great year of
change as it was my last as the Chair, as well
as the last year for my Ph.D. student, Kelly
Richardson. She finished her student years
working for us as a Clinic faculty member
while polishing up her dissertation research
on intensity perception by individuals with
Parkinson’s Disease. As I step down from
being Chair and move into a new chapter of a
Research Leave, I am proud to send off such
a talented individual to a prestigious academic
department. She will carry on the UB legacy as
she begins her research and teaching career at
the University of Massachussetts in Amherst,
their flagship public university. On the Buffalo
home front, the Department will be in great
hands as Dr. Jeff Higginbotham moves into
the Chair position. As the Associate Chair and
Director of Admissions, Dr. Higginbotham has a
wealth of administrative experience to use in his
next three years heading up the Department.
We were joined in the Fall by the newest
member of our academic faculty, Dr. Soroush
Sadeghi who quickly went about setting up
two very complicated laboratory stations to
enable him to study balance and its disorders
in animals. A big change for him, too, was the
birth of his first child in December. He has had
a very busy year, including teaching two classes
in the Spring (Advanced Hearing Science and
Research Methods for Au.D. students). Dr.
Sadeghi was instrumental in carrying on Dr. Jeff
Higginbotham’s tradition of having students put
together conference-quality poster presentations
that the Department supported to have printed
on our elite on-campus sheet printer.
We also welcome to our clinical faculty, Dr.
Susan Felsenfeld. Dr. Felsenfeld has a wealth of
clinical and research experience in fluency and
articulation disorders as well as disorders related
to emotional and attentional difficulties. We look
forward to her adding new dimensions to our
clinical offerings.
In our Clinic, we have been joined by a new
Assistant to Dr. Susan Roberts, Ms. Rachael Katz.
She takes over many of the duties from our prior
Business Assistant and is making good use of
her Master’s degree work in Creative Writing in
revamping brochures, keeping track of student
clinical practicum hours, and working on budget
issues with Dr. Roberts and Ms. MaryAnn Lamilia
Doskocz, our Department Administrator. We
were aided in the Clinic by very helpful Doctor of
Audiology students who greeted patients as they
arrived and left. Also, we are happy to report that
Ms. Gretchen Bennett will be continuing in our
Department as a Clinical Assistant Professor, for
now working half-time on the Tower Foundation
grant aimed at training school personnel on
treatment of autism. She had her second baby
this past year as well so, another busy year for
her!
In our main office, we were able to hire a new
Department Secretary, Ms. Virginia Majewski
(Jinny) in January, just in time for her to learn
how to use the online application for prospective
students to our Department. We are all happy
to have a new staff member, our third, with a
Master’s degree (this time in Library Science)!
Finally, we had many students to recognize
with awards this year including our Outstanding
Senior, Ms. Kathleen Blackburn. Three students
received the Tindle-Shupe award this year,
thanks to the continuing generous support from
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
one of our first Ph.D. graduates, Dr. Lew Shupe. His
original work with Mrs. Tindle, inspired the original
award to thank Dr. Shupe for excellent care in our
clinic after her larynx was removed due to cancer.
Dr. Shupe’s continued support for our students is
gratefully appreciated. The students who received
the Tindle-Shupe awards were: Anita-Lee Bjerke,
Leanne Meidenbauer, and Marc Johnson. Ms.
Meidenbauer also received an award for outstanding
clinical achievement from the Speech and Hearing
Association of Western New York. Furthermore, Ms.
Amy Briggs was recognized with the Jack Weber
award in Child Language Disorders. She worked
for several years with Dr. Ling-Yu Guo in his Child
Language Disorders laboratory collecting speech
production and perception data from very young
children with hearing impairment. She even pitched
in to teach an undergraduate class on occasion! Two
outstanding Master’s students were also recognized
with the Wanda Frey Joiner award: Ms. Melissa
Dauccio and Ms. Lauren Belgraier. The Wanda
Frey Joiner award is associated with the support
of women and children. In addition to outstanding
academic achievement, both participated for over
a year in the Speech Production and Perception
laboratory working on acoustic signals from
participants in a National Institutes of Health Study
headed by Dr. Jessica Huber (2001 Alumna and
Purdue University faculty member) and Dr. Elaine
Stathopoulos (at UB).
The Department is looking forward to another busy
year for 2014-2015, including a Comprehensive
Program Review. We will also be searching for two
new faculty members in the 2014-2015 year– one
on the academic side of things, the other for the
Clinic. We are very excited to be able to do so and
3
continue to maintain our very high ratings, excellent
students, and the creation of terrific clinicians and
researchers. The support from the College of Arts
and Sciences to do so is very welcomed by all faculty,
students, and staff. As always, keep an eye on our
website (www.wings.buffalo.edu\cds) and Facebook
page. Hope to hear from you through the year.
Joan Sussman,
Ph.D., Associate
Professor and
Department Chair
New Audiology Professor Joins
Faculty
Dr. Susan Felsenfeld Joins
Clinical Faculty
Dr. Soroush Sadeghi joined the CDS Audiology
Faculty in Fall, 2013. Dr. Sadeghi received his M.D.
degree from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical
Sciences in Tehran, Iran in 1997, his Ph.D. from
the Department of Physiology at McGill University
in 2009, and did a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from
2009-2013 at Johns Hopkins University.
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
Dr. Sadeghi’s primary area of interest is the
vestibular system and balance. As a medical
student, under supervision of Dr. Nayer Rassaian,
he began investigating vestibular compensation and
rehabilitation in patients with vestibular dysfunction.
This led to his research on compensatory changes
in the vestibular nerve and central nuclei in nonhuman primates under normal conditions and
following vestibular lesions under the supervision
of Dr. Kathleen Cullen at McGill University. He
continues to collaborate with numerous researchers
including Dr. Lloyd Minor (Stanford University),
Dr. Jay Goldberg (University of Chicago), and Dr.
Maurice Chacron (McGill University). As a PostDoctoral Fellow, Dr. Sadeghi continued his research
on the underlying cellular mechanisms mediating
vestibular compensation in Dr. Elisabeth Glowatzki’s
laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. His research
involved the use of the in vitro patch clamp recording
technique to study the synaptic properties of
vestibular hair cells and afferent nerve fibers as well
as the role of efferent inputs. His research has been
published in nearly 20 articles in journals such as the
Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of Neuroscience,
and Experimental Brain Research.
Dr. Sadeghi teaches Advanced Hearing Science,
Research Methods, and Vestibular Disorders courses
in the Department of Communicative Disorders
and Sciences. He is married to Dr. Tara Deemyad
(also an MD/PhD neuroscientist) and has a son. Dr.
Sadeghi has played classical piano for about 30
years and enjoys playing as well as listening to music
in his sparetime.
4
Dr. Susan Felsenfeld joined the Clinical Faculty
in October, 2013. Prior to arriving in Buffalo, Dr.
Felsenfeld was an Associate Professor at Southern
Connecticut State University, a Research Associate
at Haskins’s Laboratories, and a Clinical Assistant
Professor at Yale University’s Child Study Center,
where she served as the speech and language
diagnostician for Yale’s Academic Skills Clinic.
Her areas of clinical expertise include stuttering in
children and adults, articulation and phonological
disorders, and communication disorders associated
with learning, emotional, and attentional disabilities.
Her research program has focused on investigating
the role that genes may play in increasing the
susceptibility for complex speech disorders, primarily
stuttering. In 2007, she received a Fulbright Senior
Specialist Award in Public and Global Health that
enabled her to travel to Bukina Faso (in western
Africa) to provide public education and to investigate
the high familial rates of stuttering in that country. Dr.
Felsenfeld has taught a number of classes at both
the graduate and undergraduate levels, including
Disorders of Articulation and Phonology, Disorders of
Fluency, Phonetics, and Evidence-Based Practice for
Speech-Language Pathologists. When not working,
she is kept busy chasing after her two and a half year
old daughter and her English bull dog.
Virginia Majewski New
Department Secretary
Department of CDS
Mrs. Virginia (Jinny) Majewski joined the department
staff as Department Secretary in 2014. Jinny has
been employed at the University of Buffalo for
over 15 years in positions in Biological Sciences,
Student Advising Services, and Microbiology. She
was also a UB Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
Coordinator for four years. Jinny has a Master’s
Degree in Library and Information Studies from
UB. She was a School Library Media Specialist for
three years and an adjunct Information Technology
instructor for four years at Bryant & Stratton College.
Jinny says, “Education is important to me-whether I’m
the teacher or the student. I’m an information junkie
and need to know the ’why’ to everything. You’re
never too old to learn!” Jinny is married to Tom, has
two sons Joe and Adam, and two grandsons Austin,
13 and Jaxon, 6 months. She is an avid Buffalo Bills
fan, loves to garden, read, and spends lots of time
with family and friends. Welcome Jinny!
New Clinic Administrator
Ms. Rachael Katz joined our Speech, Language
and Hearing Clinic staff in Fall, 2013 as Clinic
Administrator. She is also working with Dr. Susan
Felsenfeld to develop the Language and Creative
summer program for clients with language-based
5
learning disabilities. Rachael taught at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst, Summer Institute for the
Gifted and the Juniper Institute for Young Writers.
When not at UB, Rachael works as a teaching artist
at Just Buffalo. Her fiction and poetry have been
published online and in print, and she will have a
chapbook out from iO Books this summer.
Welcome Rachel.
New Little Addition to
Our Department
On August 21st, 2013 Mrs. Gretchen Bennett, her
husband Andrew, and daughter Adelaide welcomed
a baby boy to their family, Robert Henry Bennett.
Hooray to all the Bennetts!
Professor Salvi Receives
Tinnitus Research Award
pathology from institutions in the U.S. These
scholarships are awarded in the spring to help offset
the cost of tuition, books, and fees incurred during
the following school year. Congratulations to Jordan
for winning this prestigious award!
NYSSLHA Award to Dr. Salvi
Dr. Richard Salvi received the Distinguished Clinical
Service Program Award at the 2014 New York
Department of CDS
Dr. Richard Salvi, SUNY Distinguished Professor,
received the Jim Snow Tinnitus Research Award
from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology
in February 2014. The award recognizes Dr. Salvi’s
ground-breaking research on tinnitus using human
brain imaging techniques as well animal models
designed to investigate the neurophysiological,
molecular, and neurochemical bases of Tinnitus.
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
Sertoma Winner
State Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Inc.
Conference in Saratoga, NY for a clinical service
program that has contributed substantially to the
clinical care of communicatively impaired individuals
on a continuing basis. In 1992, Dr. Salvi, Director of
the Center for Hearing and Deafness, and Dr. Alan
Lockwood, Department of Neurology, started their
innovative studies aimed at identifying the neural
correlates of tinnitus in the brain using positron
emission tomography. This research, supported by
an NIH grant, revolutionized current thinking on the
origins of tinnitus by shifting the aberrant neural
activity from the cochlea or inner ear to the brain, a
concept that is now well accepted in the scientific
community.
The publicity generated by this research resulted in
numerous phone calls to the Center and UB Clinic
by patients wishing to be diagnosed and treated
for tinnitus. At the time, there were few treatment
options with the exception to Tinnitus Retraining
Therapy, a sound/counseling/education technique
Ms. Jordan Stewart, a second year graduate
Speech-Language Pathology student at UB
received Sertoma’s annual Communicative Disorders
Scholarship. The award is funded by the Sertoma
Annual Fund and is for graduate students pursing
advanced degrees in audiology or speech-language
6
pioneered by Dr. Pawell Jastreboff. In response to
a deluge of tinnitus patients, Dr. Susan Roberts and
Dr. Christina Stocking enrolled in Tinnitus Retraining
Therapy courses offered by Dr. Jastreboff. Within
a few years, the UB Speech and Hearing Clinic
began seeing tinnitus patients and successfully
treating them with sound therapy, hearing aids,
counseling and education. In addition, Dr. Salvi
in collaboration with Drs. Roberts, Stocking, and
Stecker, started the Western New York Tinnitus
Support group. The UB Clinic has been called upon
to participate in new clinical treatment strategies for
tinnitus. The most recent clinical trial is sponsored
by the National Institutes of Health, awarded to the
University of Iowa, with the UB section directed by
Department of CDS
Dr. Stocking. This novel clinical trial involves vagal
nerve stimulation combined with sound therapy with
SLP Student Wins SHAWNY
Scholarship
the goal of reorganizing the aberrant neural circuitry
of the auditory cortex in an effort to suppress tinnitus.
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
UB Alumna Receives
NYSSLHA Award
Dr. Kim Tillery received the Distinguished
Achievement Award at the 2014 New York
State Speech-Language-Hearing Association,
Inc. Conference in Saratoga, NY for outstanding
7
academic, research, and clinical contributions in
audiology. Dr. Tillery received her Ph.D. from the
University at Buffalo in 1997. She is currently the
Department Chair at The State University of New
York at Fredonia. Dr. Tillery’s research and clinical
expertise involves the areas of Auditory Processing
Disorders (APD), learning and attention deficits,
specific therapy aspects of APD, and the effect of
Ritalin on APD.
Ms. Leanne Meidenbauer was awarded the 2014
Speech-Language-Hearing Association of Western
New York (SHAWNY) Scholarship. SHAWNY
is a professional and educational organization
whose membership includes speech-language
pathologists and audiologists practicing in a wide
variety of settings. Each year SHAWNY awards the
scholarship to one graduate and one undergraduate
student in Western New York who is working toward
a degree in speech-language pathology or audiology.
Leanne was a graduate student studying speechlanguage pathology at the University at Buffalo and
graduated in May 2014. She was presented with the
award at the Annual Awards Dinner on May 6, 2014.
Congrats to Leanne!
Dr. Christina Stocking Invited
to Copenhagen
Department of CDS
In December, 2013,
Dr. Chris Stocking was
invited by the Oticon
company to come to
their headquarters in
Copenhagen, Denmark
to take part in a Master
Class on Tinnitus. Dr.
Stocking was one of five
instructors for the course. The other faculty included
practitioner/researchers from England, Scotland,
the US Veteran’s Administration, and a private
practitioner from Minnesota.
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
The purpose of the class was to educate the Oticon
engineers, audiologists, and product development
and sales staff about tinnitus and management
strategies. There were about 75 attendees from
various countries. Chris had the pleasant surprise
of reuniting with one of our former graduates, Jamie
Westbrook, who now works for Oticon in their
medical division on their bone-anchored hearing aid.
She travels all over the world and would love to hear
from any of her former classmates.
AAA Trivia Bowl
Dr. Nancy
Stecker and
second year
Au.D. students
Katie Roberts
and Alexa Ohlson
were part of the
winning team at
the 25th Annual
Siemens Trivia
Dr. Stocking was also asked to spend a day with the
team in charge of developing a new Oticon product,
which will address the needs of tinnitus patients
and support the audiologists who serve them.
One of Oticon’s audiologists in charge of training
subsequently came to Buffalo to observe our clinical
practice with tinnitus patients. UB continues to be
a leader in the study of tinnitus and a role model for
provision clinical services for tinnitus patients.
White Coat Ceremony
May 16, 2014
The fourth annual White Coat ceremony was held
on May 16, 2014 to honor the graduating Doctor
of Audiology students. Special congratulations go
to this year’s graduates: Jennifer Campolo, Caitlin
8
Cooper, Lauren Doolittle, Marc Johnson, Stephanie
Loccisano, Brittany Mott, Krystal Vera, and Kristine
Weinert. The Student Academy of Audiology
organized the event and provided refreshments for
the graduates and their families.
Bowl at the AAA Convention in Orlando, FL. Their
team name was “Lions, Tigers, and bEARs, Oh My!”
A monetary prize was awarded, and our name was
placed on the trophy. This is the first time that UB
has won the AAA Trivia Bowl, and we hope this is the
start of a new tradition for UB!
Cinotti Receives SHAWNY
Award
On May 6, 2014, a past alumna, as well as former
faculty member of the department, received the
Honor of the Association /Recognition Award from
the Speech-Language and Hearing Association
of Western New York (SHAWNY) for outstanding
service and dedication to the fields of SpeechLanguage Pathology & Audiology. Ms. Terri Cinotti
graduated from the University at Buffalo CDS
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
department in 1993 and later returned as a clinical
faculty member in 1996, a position she held for 17
years. She now continues her academic career as a
clinical supervisor at SUNY Buffalo State and as an
adjunct faculty member at SUNY Fredonia, in addition
to providing services via her private practice. At the
recognition ceremony, Terri attributed her honor to
the many positive influences in her career such as
her UB mentors, colleagues, and peers: Jack Katz,
Rosemary Lubinski, Carol Sellers, Kim Tillery, Donna
Ringholz, and Stephanie Verrico. Terri was grateful to
be able to share the evening with family, colleagues,
and friends, as well as with a former student, Leanne
Meidenbauer, who received the SHAWNY Graduate
Student Scholarship.
Teddy Bear Clinic Participation
On February 7, 2014, Speech-Language Pathology
and Audiology graduate students from the UB
Speech Language and Hearing Clinic volunteered
their time at Harriman Hall to participate in the annual
9
Teddy Bear Clinic. This event was coordinated with
the “Give Kids a Smile Day,” a day of free dentistry
for children who do not have access to a dentist. The
event services between 700-800 Head Start children
from pre-k to kindergarten, with approximately
400 volunteers from various disciplines. Clinical
faculty from Communicative Disorders and Sciences
supervised graduate students as they used a portable
audiometer and speech materials with teddy bears
to make the children feel more comfortable about
hearing and speech testing.
Workshop with Hearing
Evaluation Services, Inc.
On April 28-29, 2014 the University at Buffalo
Au.D. students and Clinical Audiology supervisors
collaborated with the audiologists at Hearing
Evaluation Services for a workshop given by Steve
Eagon, M.A. Audiology. Mr. Eagon is the Director of
Learning and Development at the Sonova Group. The
focus of the workshop was to mentor students not to
fear selling hearing aids and how to motivate patients
to move forward with hearing aids. Over the course of
two days, UB students developed a business mindset
within a clinical dispensing program. Current trends
in hearing aid marketing were discussed as well as
the “art of selling” within the clinical audiology setting.
The workshop benefitted students in developing
proactive patient interviewing skills, new strategies
in explaining test results and presenting hearing
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
10
aids as a solution. The photo shows Mr. Eagon with
his co-worker Christa Coore-Powell and three HES
audiologists.
Amplification CEU Workshop
Douglas Beck, Au.D.
gave a workshop entitled
Issues in Audiology and
Amplification-2014 organized
by the University at Buffalo
Department of Communicative
Disorders and Sciences. Dr.
Beck earned his Master’s
Degree at the University of
Buffalo and his doctorate from the University of
Florida at Gainesville. He currently serves as the
American Academy of Audiology’s Web Content
Editor and works for Oticon, Inc as the director of
professional relations. The workshop discussed the
problems with basic audiograms and how analyzing
pure tone audiometry and word recognition scores
in quiet and in noise can relate to amplification
outcomes. Dr. Beck explained the benefits and
limitations of hearing aid features and how they can
impact hearing aid fitting satisfaction and optimum
outcomes. Evidence based practice and current peer
reviewed publications were discussed.
Cochlear Implant Presentation
Dr. JoAnn Hammer
collaborated with Mrs. Michelle
Dube, M.S. Ed, CCC-A in a
workshop entitled Update on
Cochlear Implants and Bone
Anchored Hearing Aids: New
Developments in Candidacy,
Technology, and Outcomes
held at Buffalo Hearing and
Speech Center. The workshop discussed changes
in candidacy for cochlear implant and BAHA devices
and the most recent technological advancements
in new speech processors recently released by
manufacturers. Dr. Hammer reviewed possible
outcomes for patients with these devices and
strategies to increase success. Over 80 speechlanguage pathologists, audiologists, and educators
attended the workshop. Interdisciplinary team
case studies and videos were presented, and the
team collaborated to plan case management and
outcome goals.
Gretchen Bennett Presents at
NYSSLHA Annual Convention
This year Ms. Gretchen Bennett, Clinical Assistant
Professor in the UB Speech, Language, and Hearing
Clinic presented a program on the Evaluation and
Treatment of Adolescents and Young Adults with
Pragmatic Language Disorders at NYSSLHA’s
Annual Convention in Saratoga Spring, NY. The
session discussed specific informal and formal
evaluation methods to assess pragmatic skills and to
develop valuable treatment plans. Treatment areas,
intervention strategies, and practical therapy ideas
were also shared and demonstrated.
Laryngectomy Conference
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
11
The Communicative Disorders and Sciences division
of the Graduate Student Association organized a
conference that was held on April 11, 2014 entitled
Vocal and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Following
Total Laryngectomy: Trends and Practice Patterns.
Lindsey Lambert, a speech-language pathologist
from ATOS Medical presented on new technologies
being used to facilitate communication after a
laryngectomy. Following the presentation, members
from the New Voice Club of the Niagara Frontier
shared their experiences with various laryngectomy
provided free healthcare evaluations for more than
3.5 million patients and free reconstructive surgeries
to more than 200,000 children and young adults
since the organization’s founding in 1982. The GSA
recognizes the importance of surgical intervention
and reconstruction for children born with cleft lip and
palate, particularly in speech and language abilities.
The Pasta Dinner fundraising event would not have
been possible without the hard work and help of the
GSA members, the generous community donors, and
the dinner patrons who made the event a great success.
technologies and the communication methods they
use. This conference received approval from ASHA
to be offered to externship supervisors for .2 ASHA
continuing education credits to thank them for all of the
time and effort they put in teaching graduate clinicians.
GSA Sponsors Pasta Dinner
The Communicative Disorders and Sciences
chapter of the University at Buffalo’s Graduate
Student Association (GSA) is proud to announce
the success of the Pasta Dinner fundraising event,
held on Sunday, March 30, 2014 at the University at
Buffalo’s Harriman Hall. The GSA was able to raise
enough money to donate a significant portion of the
proceeds to the not-for-profit international charity,
Operation Smile. Operation Smile strives to provide
safe, effective reconstructive surgery, and related
medical care to children born with facial deformities
such as cleft lip and palate. Operation Smile has
Student Academy of Audiology
Annual Pasta Dinner
The University at Buffalo’s Student Academy of
Audiology (SAA) held the Annual Pasta Dinner and
Fundraiser on April 29, 2014. The event was held
their Hearing Evaluation Services to benefit the Dr.
Ann Stadelmaier Foundation which funds hearing
aids for patients who are unable to afford them. Dr.
Stadelmaier was a UB Alumna and former executive
director of Hearing Evaluation Services who passed
away after a long battle with cancer. The Annual
Pasta Dinner is a fundraiser held every year to raise
money for the fund and to bring community members
together. UB students also collected donations for
the Dr. Ann Stadelmaier Foundation.
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
Beijing Summer Audiology
Clinic Training Program
June 2014
Student Academy of Audiology
and UB Alumni Happy Hour
SAA hosted their annual Alumni Happy Hour at
the American Academy of Audiology convention in
Orlando, FL in April, 2014. The event was attended
by former graduates and faculty of UB as pictured
above as well as current students and faculty.
12
In collaboration with the General Hospital of PLA
in Beijing, the CDS department participated for
the second year in an audiology clinic training and
research program. Six students and four faculty
members traveled to Beijing this June. This is the
second year our students and faculty have traveled
to Beijing for this unique learning opportunity. While
in Beijing, the group also traveled to Taiyan to
the Second Sino-US Audiology Training Program
Conference. Drs. Sun, Stecker, and Stocking
presented papers at the conference.
Au.D. Students Assist at
Special Olympics New York
Winter Games
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
13
On Saturday, February 22, 2014, the second day of
the Special Olympics New York Winter Games 2014
was in full motion at The Oncenter in Syracuse New
York. On this bright and sunny day, several health
practitioners offered a variety of health screenings to
the competitors that included free eye exams to free
fitness screenings. In the spirit of Healthy Hearing,
the members of The University at Buffalo chapter
of the Student Academy of Audiology joined in the
festivities and offered free hearing screenings. CoPresident Vanessa Rogers stated, “We performed
otoscopy, tympanograms, otoacoustic emissions, and
pure tone screenings on all of the athletes! We had
a large group of UB Au.D. students who participated
in the event. Overall, the event was a great success.
Every year we participate in the Special Olympics,
and we plan to participate in the Summer Special
Olympics in Buffalo in July!”
Wellness Fair Volunteer
Julia Murak, Au.D.
student volunteered at
the 2014 Wellness Fair at
Williamsville South High
School. Pictured with her is
Stephanie Verrico, MA who
is a UB graduate, a speechlanguage pathologist in the
Williamsville schools, and an
adjunct clinical instructor in
the CDS Department.
SLP Student Authors Article
Noel Shafi, a second year MA student in SpeechLanguage Pathology recently co-authored an
article entitled Collaborative Models of Practice with
Hugo Segura. The article, published in Advance,
a free E-newsletter, focuses on the variety of
interprofessional collaborative models of practice
available in various clinical settings. The article can
be found at http://speech-language-pathologyaudiology.advanceweb.com/Features/Articles/
Collaborative-Models-of-Practice.aspx.
Au.D. 2014 Student
Research Day
The Au.D. Student Research Day was held on May 2,
2014. The Au.D. Research Day is an annual event
for audiology students to present their research
projects using podium and poster formats. This year,
seven third-year Au.D. students, two second-year
Au.D. students, and one Ph.D. student presented
their research projects in the podium session. These
projects cover a wide range of hearing-related
disorders, including hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis,
and Parkinson’s disease. In these research studies,
the students examined the impact of hearing
disorders on patients and explored novel methods for
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
evaluation of these disorders. Several studies used
animal models to investigate the biological bases of
hearing disorders. The research projects presented in
the podium session include:
q Madeline Vojak and Nicolle Arcara: Parkinson’s
Disease and Hyperacusis; An Association Study.
q Emily Henderson: Long-term follow-up of
tinnitus patients.
q Alyssa Beaton: Examining Speech Perception
Abilities in Individuals with Hearing Impairment
q Comparing Quick-SIN scores and the Adaptive
Speech Recognition Test (ASRT). Supported in
part by Dr. Joe Bochner, Professor and Chair of
the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies
at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at
the Rochester Institute of Technology.
q Vanessa Rogers: Nerve Fiber Loss and Tone in
Noise Testing in Tinnitus Subjects.
q Matthew Johnson and Kathryn Roberts: The
impact of salicylate-induced hearing loss on
temporal integration in rats.
q Adam Sheppard: Maxipost, a potassium channel
opener, demonstrates high-frequency protection
against salicylate-induced ototoxicity.
q Morganne Lawrence: Using the startle reflex as
a non-invasive method for observing the adaptive
plasticity of loudness in animals.
q Lindsey Quenville: Long-term stability of the
acoustic startle reflex in sprague-dawley rats.
In addition to the podium session, the first-year Au.D.
students presented the posters illustrating their
proposed research projects. Audiology and speech
faculty members mentored and also participated in
the Research Day. Previously, Master’s students in
SLP had their own Research Day events at the end of
the Fall semester in the UB Speech, Language, and
Hearing Clinic.
Alumni in Washington, DC Area
In the past few years, a number of our graduates in
speech-language pathology have taken clinical and
supervisory positions in the Washington, DC and the
Fairfax County Virginia Public Schools. Read about
their professional lives in this dynamic area.
Hello from Alethea Chew
“After I graduated from the University at Buffalo
(UB) in 2004, I moved to Fairfax County in Northern
Virginia, near Washington DC. I completed my Clinical
Fellowship Year with Fairfax
County Public Schools,
which is also Virginia’s
largest school system. I
continue to work in this
school district with students
in preschool, elementary
school, middle school, and high school. My students
come from many culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds. As I conduct bilingual dynamic
assessments across the county, I have managed
to put my Mandarin Chinese skills (which I learned
growing up in my native country of Singapore)
to good use. In addition, I have had opportunities
to work with students who have a wide range of
disabilities, some of whom use AAC extensively.
My Communication Disorders Program Manager
commented that she is always grateful to work with
us UB graduates; as she knows we hit the ground
running from Day 1 on the job! In the midst of my
career development as an SLP, I got married in
Buffalo to my husband, Matthew. We now have two
lovely and lively children - a six year-old daughter,
Mariel, and 4-year-old son, Andrew.”
UB Graduate Follows in his
Mother’s Footsteps
Geoffrey Greenman, son of Ms.
Carol Sellers, a Clinical Assistant
Professor in the UB Speech,
Language and Hearing Clinic, is a clinical supervisor
in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences
at The George Washington University in Washington,
continued >
14
DC. Currently, Geoffrey provides supervision to first
year master’s degree students in the areas of accent
modification and literacy.
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
Each year, Geoffrey partners with a non-profit
organization called The Literacy Lab that provides
literacy services to high-needs children in the District
of Columbia Public Schools. Specifically, clinicians
under Geoffrey’s supervision provide literacy services
to students in grades K-3 in Southeast, D.C. The
literacy services focus on improving students’
phonological awareness and phonics skills.
Accent modification services are provided to area
professionals as well as George Washington University
faculty and students. Accent modification services
improve clients’ production of Standard American
English stress, intonation, articulation, and grammar
skills. Additionally, in collaboration with The George
Washington University Medical School’s International
Medical Program, graduate clinicians under Geoffrey’s
supervision participate in an annual 2-day accent
modification workshop for international medical
fellows from Saudi Arabia.
Viola Employed by National
Rehabilitation Hospital
On August 12, 2013, Lauren
Viola (MA, 2013) began her
Clinical Fellowship at MedStar
National Rehabilitation Hospital
in Washington, DC. The staff
helped Lauren feel right at home
in a supportive environment
of 20+ unbelievably
knowledgeable SLPs.
The Speech-Pathology service is split between
outpatient and inpatient therapists, and Lauren
currently works full-time on the outpatient team.
Working alongside seven other seasoned outpatient
clinicians, days are spent seeing a wide variety
15
of diagnoses and etiologies. Most of her patients
have sustained CVAs, TBIs, concussions, and brain
tumor resections. Ages of patients typically span
from early 20s to mid 80s. Treatment sessions are
diverse, ranging from motor speech drills, dysphagia
management, aphasia therapy (reading, writing,
expressive/receptive language), AAC, cognitivecommunication skills, counseling, and return to work/
community. Lauren says that “Each day is a novelty
and a new learning experience. Seeing patients on
such a continuum of deficits and impairments is a
constant reminder of just how precious the gift of
communication is.”
CDS Awards and Recognition Ceremony 2014
Department of CDS
www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences
University at Buffalo
The State University of New York
122 Cary Hall
Buffalo, NY 14214
Department Contribution
If you would like to donate to the Teaching, Service, and Research missions of the Department of Communicative
Disorders and Sciences, please visit our website (www.wings.buffalo.edu/cds) and look for the “Donate Now” button.
Your contributions help to maintain our outstanding programs and are much appreciated.